Ruined- A Hunger Games Fanfiction
by Under Cover Duckling
Summary: Everyone has their ups and downs in life. Belinda is just normal 17 year-old from District 10. She is happy with the life she has and doesn't want anything to change. Her life turns upside down when she gets reaped for the 55th Annual Hunger Games. From that point on she has one goal, win the Games to return home.
1. Introduction

_**(A/N: I know that I haven't written in awhile but I finally decided to write another story. I hope that this story turns out better than my first one.** **I got the characters' names from a user by the name of Saltey.**_ _ **)**_

* * *

I wake up to the sound of animals making all types of annoying sounds. I've gotten used to it be now, because that's what I hear every day. I get off of my bed and get ready for the day. I put on some old jeans that I stole from a neighbor the other day, and a shirt, that I also stole from a neighbor the other day. The clothes are old, broken, and too big for me but I can manage for a month or two. I grab my hair and put it up into some style that I can work with.

I leave the room that my brother, who is still in bed, and I share. It's not a big room but I can live with it, then again I don't have anything to fill the room with. I walk to the kitchen to find my parents making some breakfast with the food from last year's tesserae, could be mine or my brother's but as long as it's food it's not a problem. I sit down on one of the old rotting chairs that my family has had ever since I was young.

"Hello dear, isn't your brother up? Do me a favor and wake him up for me, you'll both be late for school." says my mother as she sets the table.

"Don't worry, if he doesn't wake up then I'll just go to school myself," I say as I walk back to the room.

"Just wake him up."

"Fine," I sigh as I roll my eyes.

I walk back into the room to find my brother asleep on his bed. He sleeps like a drooling animal, all of the sheets are on the floor and his hair is a mess. God, I hope I don't look that bad when I wake up in the morning.

"Buck," I say as I tap his shoulder. "Buck wake up, we're going to be late for school." He just moans and shifts his body away from me. "Seriously stop fooling around, Mom told me to come and get you." I grab one of his arms and pull him. "God you weigh more than a pregnant cow, what did you eat?" I keep on pulling but Buck is just too heavy, he's two years older than me so it makes sense. I stop pulling on Buck's arm because I know that there's no point in doing so. I walk to my bed, grab a straw-filled pillow and I walk back to Buck. "Wake up!" I yell as I smack his face with a pillow.

"What do you want?" Buck asks as he rubs his face.

"Get up! We're going to be late for school!"

"Alright... I'm up." I walk back to the kitchen to see that my mother has finished setting the table.

"Well it's about time," says my father once he sees Buck. He comes out of the room dressed up and ready for school. He sits down next to me and starts to shove food down his throat. I attempt to shove food down my throat but I soon realize that I'm dropping food all around me. I don't bother finishing my breakfast, I know that I'll be hungry during school but I'm already used to starving and having nothing to eat. Buck and I grab the usual things that we bring to school, say our goodbyes and run out the door.

The school is far from our farm, takes about an hour to walk there. When I was younger I used to complain about walking to school, I would be exhausted by the time I reached the front of the school. That's nothing compared to how exhausted I am when I have to help my dad in the farm after school.

"We're not going to make it in time, we need to run." Buck says.

"I wonder why we can't make it." I say.

"Just run." I tightly grip my supplies and start to run after Buck. We can't run all the way to the school, I can manage running halfway to the school but not all the way.

"Buck," I say after minutes of running. "We need to... stop" I say in between breaths.

"Come, on Belinda, you are the one that wants to be early to school."

"Let them mark me late, I'm not going to have a heart-attack for a school that barley teaches us anything. I swear a cow can teach us more than the teachers in our school."

"Tell me about it," Buck starts. "One time when I was about ten, the teacher told us to hold up eleven fingers. She corrected herself quickly but, once you say something you say something. It was funny at the moment." He says once he sees my face.

"She could have had any extra finger somewhere."

"I'm pretty sure she only had ten fingers Belinda. Class is going to start soon; we should go back to running."

"I'm still tired, and anyways the teachers may not care if I'm late or not, the Reaping is tomorrow."

"And your teacher has a twelve year-old, right?"

"Yeah,"

"She's probably not going to care about you being late; she'll be focusing on her child or something." I kick a stone across the path.

"At least I only have this year and next year, and then I'm free from the Reaping."

"Trust me; it's a great feeling when it's the last time that your name is in the bowl. How many times are you entering this year?'

"I don't know, there's the six times that I have to be put in and then there's a lot more for the tesserae, so it's about thirty times."

"Great, least we'll have some food for the year."

"That's the only good thing about this corrupted world."

"Let's get this clear, there isn't anything good about this place."

"Okay, but it's the best thing about the Games, cause you do have the chance that you are going to be picked and entered into a place to die."

"Anyways, school's only a couple of minutes away in walking distance, want to run there?" Buck says while he's already walking faster.

"Sure, I'm not that tired anymore."

* * *

We arrive to the school ten minutes late. The school itself isn't in a great shape either, the windows are old and broken plus some of the wooden walls are starting to rot because of all of the rain that we've gotten so far. Peacekeepers patrol the area, as usual. They always carry their weapons and stare at you like they know everything about you, it's freaky when they look at you for too long and then start to ask questions. I walk into the school to see that another part of the floor has broken, that's not going to be fixed anytime soon. There are things that have been broken here for so long but no one bothers to fix it, the money is usually used for food, rent, and other necessities that seem more important than school. Buck and I separate to go into our classrooms.

"You're late Belinda," Ms. Callahan says as I step into the room.

"I know and I'm sorry, my brother woke up late." It was stupid of me to think that she wouldn't mark me late.

"That's no excuse for you to be late, just sit down." She takes a pencil and marks something on a piece of paper, which is most likely where the attendance is. "Okay now for today's lesson, which I think is fitting; today we will be learning about the forming of the Annual Hunger Games."

Every year they do this to us, talk about how the Games and the world as we know it came to be.

"As we all know, fifty six years ago, there was no such thing as the Hunger Games and there were thirteen districts instead of twelve. All thirteen districts went against the Capitol, who is now in charge of Panem. During this act District thirteen was completely obliterated and the rest of the districts were taken over by the Capitol. As a reminder to the districts, the Capitol decided to create a game, where each child from each district, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, has their name inside the Reaping Bowl. From there one male and female from each district shall be chosen to compete in an arena to fight until one person, the victor, remains." Ms. Callahan continues to speak about the Games itself, individual Games and the Quarter quells until the school day is over.

* * *

After school, I wait by the door for Buck to come out of the building. He is talking to some of his friends and when he sees me, he departs from them.

"What did you learn about today Belinda?"

"Absolutely nothing Ms. Callahan just kept on talking about the Games, and other stuff I already knew."

"At least you didn't have to do an essay, like I did."

"Sucks to be you."

"No," he says, "sucks to be you. You, my friend still have to go to the Reaping, while I get to see which unfortunate souls get picked for the Games. You still have the fear; I on the other hand do not."

"What if I get picked?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"Like I said before, you have the fear, I do not."

"I feel so loved." I add sarcastically.

"Yeah, you should, I could just throw you in the lake while you're sleeping if I wanted to."

"So can I," I answer.

"Oh please Belinda," Buck starts. "You couldn't even drag me out of bed this morning."

"Fair point."

* * *

"Go get dressed and out into the farm with your father." says my mother once we reach the front steps of the house.

"No hello, no how was your day?" asks Buck.

"You both have to go and work, tomorrow is the Reaping and there is a good chance that the Capitol will need extra meat for the tributes, the feasts and anything else that the Capitol does with the meat we send."

"Okay," Buck and I say in unison. We each go to our side of the room and get dressed. I put on broken pants and a broken shirt that I found one day after school. I fix my hair again before leaving with Buck to head to the farm. Our farm has the simple animals, pigs, cows, goats, hens, roosters and chicks.

"Buck you'll be helping me with slaughtering the pigs today." says my father. "Belinda, I've already gotten the first pig, you'll be getting two more and bringing them to Buck and I to slaughter."

"Okay." I say.

"Have fun getting those pigs." Buck says.

"I'll try." I say as I walk to the pig pen. I look at each one of the pigs, I can here squeals coming from the slaughter house, must be from the pig that's being killed. I look at the pig pen, some of the pigs are not old enough, others are just piglets, some are too slim and then there are the ones that look sick. I spot one that isn't fat, but it's as fat as we could get them, and another that also isn't fat but it's one of the few that aren't sick or showing its rib cage. I grab the slimmer pig first and tie a rope around its neck. I take the pig from the pen and walk it to the slaughter house.

The slaughter house itself is a little bigger than the room that Buck and I share. It smells heavily of meat, blood and metal. On the corner are some aprons, made form old pieces of fabric, a couple of knives that my father made from metal scrapes and some animal organs which need to be thrown out. Past the knives is another pig pen, which I place the pig into. I walk over to the slaughtering table, as I like to call it, to see Buck and my father covered in blood and small pieces of pig organs.

"Well you two look like you are having fun." I say.

"Believe it or not, we are," says Buck.

"Well, here's the first pig, the next one is a little fatter, so it will be worth more than this one." I say as I point to the pig in the slaughter pen.

"Good, go ahead and get it Belinda," says my father. I walk out of the slaughter house and back to the pig pen to grab the fatter pig. I remove it from the pen and tie the string around its neck. Before I can even grab the other side of the rope, the pig starts to walk away.

"No, get back here." I get off of the ground, grab the rope and start to pull the pig towards the slaughter house. The pig refuses to move towards the slaughter house, it tries to go the opposite direction. It's like playing tug a war with a pig, I want to go one way but the pig wants to go another way. "Look here you pig; you have to go into the house." The pig still doesn't want to move. "This is stupid." I mumble under my breath.

"Belinda, what's taking you so long?" Buck asks me as he leaves the slaughter house.

"Oh, you know just enjoying the day, relaxing." I tug the rope harder. "What does it look like I'm doing?" I ask in a harsher tone.

"Looks like you're having fun, enjoy yourself."

"Just come over here and get the pig." Buck comes to me and grabs the pig with the rope and walks it back to the slaughter house.

"You know what, next time you slaughter and I'll get the animal."

"Agreed."

* * *

 _ **(A/N: I wanted to write about the daily life of the character instead of starting with the Reaping right away. I hope this chapter was good and you got the District 10 vibe. I also hope that this chapter did not have that many spelling/grammar mistakes.)**_


	2. The Reaping

**_(A/N: I will try to update as much as I can, hope that you enjoy this chapter!)_**

* * *

Buck and I walk back to the slaughter house. Buck places the live pig onto the slaughtering table.

"Belinda go ahead get an apron and finish chopping up that pig." Buck points to a dead pig across the table.

"Okay." I walk to the corner with the aprons and grab the one that fits me the best. Afterwards I grab one of the knives, one that can fit in my hands, and walk back to the dead pig. Most of the insides of the pig have been taken out, except for the stomach and liver, which I remove. I can hear ahead of me squealing and some grunting, the squeals get louder, and then it goes away when I hear Buck slam his knife into the pig. I look away from the pig and continue to work on mine. I skin the pig as best as I can before I chop it into smaller portions. I throw away all of the skin and leave the smaller portion of meat for my father to handle.

"Buck, go with Belinda to get some eggs form the coop, your mother could trade some in the morning, and maybe sneak one into our dinner." my father tells us. Buck and I put our supplies back and walk to the chicken coop.

"I'll take the eggs from the coop, and you put them in the basket." I tell Buck.

"Okay." He replies. The chickens only go to the coop at night; we let them roam during the mornings and afternoons. The chicken coop is also small; there is a small opening for the chickens to go into and a small door to remove the eggs. I kneel down on the grass and open the small door. There is only one hen inside, so it shouldn't be a problem getting the rest of the eggs.

"Excuse me," I say to the hen as I stick my hand into the coop. She moves away from my hand and I take the egg. I grab four eggs and give them to Buck; I drop the fifth one on the floor.

"I don't think that mom wanted scrambled eggs." Buck says as he stares at broken egg shell.

"Neither do I, I can carry that."

"No." Buck pulls the basket away from me. "You just finished dropping one egg, there's no way that I'm going to give you this basket."

"I've dropped eggs many times, so have you. We've all done it before."

"Fine, I swear of you drop this basket, I'll make you sleep in the coop."

* * *

I safely return the basket to our house. My mother takes the eggs and puts them elsewhere, guess we aren't having any for dinner. Buck and I change into a different outfit, our current outfits are covered in sweet and some blood. We go back to the table to enjoy or meal.

"I was thinking after the Reaping you could help me trade." says my mother.

"How many things do you have to trade?" asks Buck.

"I've got the eggs to trade at the market, the meat to give to the Peacekeepers for the Capitol and some old pieces of cloth."

"Keep the cloth," my father says. "We could use it for the clothes."

"Dad's right, I could use the cloth to fix some pants and shirts that I have." I say.

"Okay, the cloth will stay. You two should get some shut eye, we have to wake up early if we want to get to the Reaping Center on time."

* * *

I wake up in the morning with the usual anxiety and lack of hunger that I have on Reaping Day. I look out the window to see that the sun just started to rise. My mom put a dress on my bed, which I put on. The dress is pale green and looks like it's has been worn many times before. I may have worn it a month ago to my cousin's birthday, or it could have been my mother's.

"Well look who's up early." I say as I see that Buck is already up.

"Of course I'm up, it's Reaping Day." he says.

"But you're not entering."

"I know I just love to see you panic."

"What do you mean you love to see me panic?" I say as my voice gets higher.

"And when your voice gets higher. It's just fun to watch."

"Why?" I ask in a higher voice again.

"Just go and eat breakfast." I walk to the kitchen, with Buck following me, to find my mother and father packing things for the walk to the Reaping Center. The walk to the Reaping Center takes us about three hours. We can't ride a horse because we don't own any and we don't have enough money to borrow one. One year we tried bringing our cow but it didn't work out. The cow ended up getting ill and dying on the way back home. My parents don't want to risk the life of any other cow.

"We have to eat on the way there if we want to get there early." says my mother once we enter the kitchen.

"No surprise there," I mumble.

"Get something to eat before we leave, we can't take anything for the journey, we could meet some wild animals." says my father. Buck and I sit down and eat some food, it's the last amount of tesserae that's left.

"How do you think the arena is going to look like this year?" Buck asks.

"Don't know, it could be a forest." I say.

"I'm tired of seeing that, we need something new. Like if random people just exploded."

"That's not fair, people won't have the chance to fight and there will not be any action. I'm not going to see a game with no action. What's the fun in that? It's better if they die one by one."

"True, there's more action if you let them fight."

"Okay," my mother say. "We're ready to go."

* * *

The journey is long, but Buck and I find things done to do along the way. When we were younger we would play hide-in-seek, tag and other things. We usually take a break or two from walking, that's when we meet other people, some I see in school and others that I didn't even know existed. I met my cousins one year, they don't go through the same anymore.

The path that we are walking on is old and worn. The pavement is cracked and there are holes everywhere, some are just little nicks while others can trip you on the floor and guarantee you a bruise. There are also pebbles and stones on the floors that I kick around while we are walking.

We past other farms and homes. We see some horses as well, we could use one right now. It would be nice to sit on a horse and let them ride us to the Reaping Center. I've never ridden a horse before, must be fun.

"Don't you think that it would be nice to ride a horse one day Buck?" I say.

"Yeah, it would probably get pissed when you're on it, and knock you off." he replies

"Well if I fall I hope you help me so the horse can trample you."

"Very funny, but it would be nice to ride a horse, especially now."

"Tell me about it," I start. "We should be getting closer to our first pit stop any moment."

"It would be nice if we could rest."

"Hope we don't meet anyone."

"Why not?" Buck asks.

"Remember last year, the pair of blondes that we crossed with, the younger one keep on talking and talking, he just wouldn't shut up."

"Oh yeah, ha, I got the quite one." Buck teases.

"Lucky you." I saw with a scowl

"Here's our first stop," says my mother. "We are only staying here for a while, so don't get comfortable, we are only half way to the Reaping Center."

* * *

We sit down on these boulders that are on the side of the road. Buck and I sit down on the same boulder. It's weathering down, I see some small pieces of rock on the ground. The boulder is also very dirty and dusty, which may or may not stain my dress. My father passes some water around. When it gets to Buck he drinks it slowly, trying to enjoy every last sip.

"You do realize that I am thirsty too right?" I say.

"I know." Buck takes another gulp of water. "I'm just messing with you." He passes me the canteen.

"Thanks," I sarcastically say as I snatch the bottle.

My father gets off his boulder. "Okay," he says. "Time to start walking again."

* * *

We arrive to the Reaping Center about an hour later. It hasn't changed that much, just some faces are new. The place is filled with Peacekeepers patrolling the area. There are thousands of people here. There are older siblings walking their younger siblings and parents saying their final goodbyes before letting the children leave. I see lines of children that are already signing up, some of them are crying, others are worried and some are both.

"Well good luck Belinda." Buck tells me as he hugs me. Both of my parents give me a kiss and a hug before leaving me.

I walk to the lines filled with the frightened children and sign up. When I reach the front of the line I sign up for the tesserae. My name is going to be in there thirty times. When I am finished signing up, I walk out of line and find the other seventeen year-olds. At first I couldn't find them but then I spotted a girl from my school and followed her to the group.

After standing in the sun for another hour, Tatiana Cabot, our district escort, walks up the stage. I hope she trips on the stairs and cracks her head open wearing those nine inch heels. She looks ridiculous with that outfit of hers. I don't know what the Capitol was going for this year but all I have to say is that she looks like someone placed a dead bull on her body. The Capitol even decided to add horns in her straight hair.

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" she says, into the microphone that is planted in the middle of the stage, in her Capitol voice. I hate her voice, it's so high pitched and makes everything sound like a question. That's how everyone in the Capitol speaks like. I wish that I could slap citizens from the Capitol and teach them how to speak like people.

"Let's start with the beautiful ladies, as always!" She walks to the one of the reaping bowls, which contains that name of every female that is eligible for the Games this year. It seems to take an eternity for Tatiana to walk to the bowl. She puts her hand inside and shifts it to the left, to the right and back again to the left. She picks out a piece of paper and trots back to the microphone.

"Belinda Herrick." Tatiana happily says.

My stomach drops. Out of all of the names that could've been picked out of that bowl, it had to be mine.

* * *

 ** _(A/N: That's the Reaping, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!)_**


	3. The Reaping Part II & The Train Ride

_**(A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated in awhile, I was a bit busy.)**_

* * *

My name was reaped. _My_ name. I take a deep breath and look around me. The girl next to me jerked her head towards me right when my name was called. I look at her. Have I seen her before? Probably at school. Everything looks fuzzy. I start to walk out of the crowd of children and onto the stage. The children around me make a pathway. All of them must have a weight lifted off their shoulders by now.

When I finish walking through the pathway towards the stage, Peacekeepers come and escort me to Tatiana. This stage is one of the few things that is in good shape in District 10. I walk up the stairs, nearly stumbling on the way up. Tatiana tries to sugarcoat the situation with a smile but you can't really sugarcoat a situation where you are most likely going to die. The Peacekeepers place me about a yard away from Tatiana, looking at the crowd. All eyes are on me. I scan the crowd for my family. Where are they? I give up looking for them, we'll talk later.

"Lovely!" Tatiana screeches into the microphone. Her voice was so loud it made me flinch. "Now let's get the male tribute!" Tatiana walks to the male reaping bowl. She moves her hands in different directions before picking a name. She trots again to the microphone and reads out the name. "Talon Borell." I look to the boys and try to find this Talon kid. All of the males are moving away from another boy. He could be my age, or eighteen. Talon walks out of the crowd and the Peacekeeprs take over. The Peackeepers take Talon to the stage and places him in the opposite side of Tatiana.

Tatiana starts to clap her hands in such a childish manner that it makes her look more stupid than she probably is.

"Wonderful! Just wonderful! Ladies and gentlemen, the tributes of District 10 for the 55th Annual Hunger Games!" Tatiana gestures her hands for me and Talon to shake hands. He places his hand out and I place out mine. He has a very tight grip, could've been a butcher, that grip is useful for holding down animals. We let go of each other's hands. Tatiana leaves the microphone.

"Come this way." she says as she leads us to a door.

* * *

The Peacekeepers shove me into a room with nothing but a chair and a window. I wait here for my family to come and talk to me, I don't think anyone else cares enough about me to come and say farewell. I sit down on the chair. As soon as I sit down on it, the chair's leg snaps and it leans onto one side.

"What a piece of crap." I say as I kick the broken leg. I walk around in circles to pass time. The door opens. I flip my head towards the door to see my family.

"Make it quick, you don't have all day." says a raspy voice. The Peacekeeper leaves and closes the door behind him. My mother comes to me with tears running down her face.

"I can't believe that you're going to the Games." she chokes out. She comes towards me a gives me a really tight hug.

"Mom, you don't want to kill me now, right?" She lets go of me and I can breathe again. Her hand goes into my hair.

"Good luck." My mother then goes to my father and he hugs her gently.

"You'll do fine," he says. "The first day is what you really have to look out for." My eyes turn to Buck. His eyes are filled with tears but they are not running down his face, yet.

"Look Belinda, you know I didn't mean that I wouldn't be scared for you if you got picked right?"

"I know." I say as tears start leaving my face.

"I didn't think... that you'd actually be picked." More tears leave my eyes.

"I was so close, I just needed one more year."

"I know."

"Have fun killing those pigs without me." I start to laugh a bit.

"I think I'll be fine." I lean into him and hug him, he hugs me back. God, how the heck am I going survive the Games?

* * *

The Peacekeeper comes in to escort my family away from me. I turn my back so the Peacekeeper doesn't see my tears, I don't want him to enjoy my suffering. I wipe my tears off my face and look up towards the ceiling to prevent any other tears from falling out of my eyes.

Another Peacekeeper comes in to take me out of the room. I see Talon as well, doesn't even look like he was crying. What is that guy made out of, stone? His Peacekeeper grabs his arm but Talon shifts his arm away, the Peacekeeper grunts and stays close to Talon.

Tatiana is outside, must've been waiting for us. We are taken to her and go for a little walk to the carriage. I walk into the carriage and feel surprised. I was expecting something extravagant, fancy, with a pop of color but instead I get a red carriage that fits four people with some fancy designs carved into the wood.

"Isn't this great! You both get to go to the Capitol and have the time of your life!" Tatiana screeches.

"More like the time that's going to end my life," I mumble.

"Oh come on you two," Tatiana whines. "At least pretend that you are having a good time." I give her a fake smile and she returns it with a frown.

"I'm not going to pretend I'm having fun here." Talon says. "If I don't like it here then I don't, and there's nothing you're going to do to make me. Not even your fancy food."

"Look if you guys want to be likable, then act friendly. None of you are going to get sponsors with _that_ attitude."

"This is the Hunger Games you're talking about lady, you don't act friendly, you kill and move on." says Talon.

"You could be a friendly killer." Tatiana requests.

"Of course we can! What am I going to do, kiss someone to death, or even worse, hug them until they can't breathe?" I reply.

"You two seriously need to work on your manners, I'm going to have to teach you when we get to the Capitol."

* * *

I get the Capitol vibe when I step into the train, it's amazing. There' s food everywhere in such ridiculous quantities it's sad. Who needs this much food on a train with like what, four people? All of the food looks so fancy, must have tons of flavor compared to the food back home. Talon and I look at Tatiana, she moves here hands ahead of herself.

"Go on, take whatever you'd like." she says. I walk to the nearest tray of food and put my hand out to grab one.

"Wait!" Tatiana yells. "Wait, wait, wait. Get a plate! Don't just go grabbing random items from the trays, I have to eat this food too. And I don't know where your hands have been! You know what, go to the bathroom and wash your hands, both of you."

"I thought she was going to teach us manners when we got to the Capitol." I tell Talon.

"You know Capitol citizens, always doing what they want and acting all spiffy." I thought the food looked fancy, that was until I saw the bathroom. It's big enough for Talon and I to wash our hands, at the same time.

"Look at that, they have running water, of course they do." I say.

"I would've done anything to get running water at my house, better than getting it from a well." Talon replies.

"Anything?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"Depends what you have in mind."

"Even if you had to wear a dress for a year?"

"Maybe, if I could hide that dress under my clothes."

"I think that's enough washing, your hands must be clean by now, you can't have that much dirt on them." Tatiana says from the center of the train's cart. We leave the bathroom and Tatiana hands us plates. I fill my plate with food, which I have never done, and sit down on a chair. On the table there are so many forks, knives and spoons.

"Who needs this many utensils, you could make a whole village out of these things." I say.

"Or you could kill someone." Talon says. I just look at him. "You know stab them with a fork or knife."

"I know that but I wasn't really thinking about death. What about the spoon?"

"Scoop out their eyes."

"Well aren't you an innocent bundle of joy?" Buck rolls his eyes and starts to eat. I look at the food on my plate and take a bite of some piece of chicken. My eyes widen. The chicken tastes amazing. I have never tasted something with so much flavor. All of the spices and herbs, what did they put on this thing? Buck stuffs his mouth with different sweets and meats.

"I thought you weren't going to enjoy this?" I ask.

"I'll enjoy the food, nothing else." I eat more things, my stomach starts to hurt. I've never eaten so much in one sitting and this food has so much flavor, I can't handle it. My stomach begs me to stop eating but I want to continue, I want to try so many things. I stuff more food into my mouth. I am so going to regret this later.

"I'm stuffed." Never thought those words will ever leave my mouth.

"That's nothing compared to what you will experience, just wait until you try on the clothes!" Tatiana exclaims. "All of the color, all of the details, you are going to love it."

"Sure," I say.

"Your mentor should be here any moment. She's probably coming here any minute." Tatiana adds. We wait five minutes and no one else comes. "You know what, I'll just go get her." Tatiana goes into a room, awhile later I hear shouts, coming from both Tatiana and from what I'm assuming, the mentor. Buck and I look at each other.

"Glad I'm not in there," I mumble.

"I want to be in there, I would love to see that mentor smack the Capitol out of that lady." Buck grunts.

"Can't argue with that." Tatiana comes of the room with another woman. She has a high ponytail, dark eyes and a birthmark on her right cheekbone.

"Sorry for the wait Buck and Belinda, just had some issues." Tatiana hisses while looking at the lady.

"So these are my tributes this year, excellent you're old, promising. Oh, I'm Georgia Bay, Victor of the 42nd Annual Hunger Games."

* * *

"What's the plan?" I ask.

"How many people do we need to kill?" Buck asks.

"Okay, don't get ahead of yourselves, let's start with the first day. Every year tributes ask me if they should go into the Cornucopia or not. I give them my reply, they go in anyway. This year I'm just going to say to do what you think is right. If you guys survive the first day, congratulations, you'll have to survive a lot more. Make alliances, find food and water. That's all you need to live."

"That's it?" I ask.

"Yes, that's all you need to know."

"No hand to hand combat training, you're not going to teach us any self-dense moves?" Buck asks.

"Oh no, that's what the Training Center is for. Anyways you guys should hit the hay, you've got a long day tomorrow."

* * *

 _ **(A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'll try to post more often :) )**_


	4. The Train Ride Part IIThe Remake Center

_**(A/N: I don't really know what to say besides, enjoy!)**_

* * *

Georgia directed Talon and I to our rooms. It was amazing. I got to clean myself, with actual body wash and brush my teeth. I didn't think that there was a type of paste the was made specifically for your mouth. There were new clothes laid out on the bed for me. It felt really soft and silky. The clothes were so nice to sleep in. Then there's the bed that was the best part. It was almost as good as the food. Back home the bed was uncomfortable but here, it felt like I was sleeping on a cloud. Everything was going great until Tatiana woke me up with her screeching.

* * *

"Time to wake up!" Tatiana screeched. I move from side to side and yawn. "Are you awake dear?"

"Yes I'm up." I say.

"What? I can't seem to hear you!"

"Yes I'm awake!"

"Okay meet Georgia and I in the dining cart!"

"Okay!" I yell back. I force myself out of my bed and into the bathroom. Like everything else in the room, it's amazing. There's a bathtub and a shower, at first I found that it cool but now that I think about it, why would I need both of them? I rinse my body quickly before brushing my teeth. I put on a new outfit and leave the room.

* * *

The table is already set. Again there are many utensils and plates on the table. There is a side table with tons of food on it. There are pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausages, toast and other breakfast entrées that I don't know the name of. I grab a plate and fill it with food. I take pancakes and bacon, for a drink I chose orange juice. I don't take the toast, it reminds me of the one that my mother used to make, so does the bacon and sausage but I can't starve myself.

I chose to sit next to Talon, which leaves Tatiana and Georgia sitting in front of me.

"Okay first morning here," Georgia starts. "Like the choices?"

"Yes, the food is amazing." says Buck.

"It is, we don't have these choices back at District 10." I say.

"Well if any of you win the Games and become a victor then you will." Georgia replied

"Oh yes, and think about all of the luxury and outfits that you'll be able to get! Just imagine it all!" Tatiana says.

"I would be more grateful for the food." I reply.

"Or the living conditions, the houses in the Victor Village are amazing. I want to live in one of those." Buck says.

"Don't we all?" I say. "I don't see why the Capitol can build twelve houses for victors but they can't build more for all of the people in Panem to live in."

"Well it's just your punishment." Tatiana says. Buck slams his hands on the table.

"Our punishment? It's our punishment? I don't think that I was alive when the rebellion happened. In fact none of us were alive!" He gets out of his chair.

"Look Buck you need to calm down." Georgia says.

"Don't you like the Capitol Buck? You get the tesserae because of us, that's helpful for you!" Tatiana says.

"Yes we absolutely love the type of people that made us go into poverty and have to fight to death. We adore you." I say as I lift my hands into the hair. "Of course we hate you, what did you expect? Us to shower you with kisses?"

"That would be quite nice...but anyways I wasn't the person the put you here." Tatiana says.

"If it wasn't for the consequences, I would've strangled you by now." Buck sits back down.

"Look I understand that you both don't like the Capitol but you are going to have to pretend to. That's how you guys are going to live. If you show hatred for the Capitol then guess what? You're not going to get life-saving sponsor gifts and die. And I'm assuming that none of you want to die. Did you think that I adored the Capitol when I came here? Well if you thought so then you are wrong, I absolutely hated it here. I would rather be dead then go to the Capitol." Georgia says.

"Well that's quite rude." Tatiana puts her hand on her chest.

"It's not like it was a secret."

"Okay, you both should be finishing you breakfast soon. We are going to where I grew up, the wonderful, amazing, Capitol!"

"Yay." I sarcastically say.

* * *

Talon and I gobble up the last amounts of food that we have left on our plates. I would've finished my food if it wasn't for Tatiana rushing me to wave to the Capitol citizens outside.

"Wave at them, and act happy for once!" She would tell us. "Smile! Wave! But not with the face Talon. Belinda don't put on that fake smile, give them a real one!"

I tried my best to give a believable smile but I don't like the Capitol, it's hard to pretend to do especially after all they've done to me.

We board off the train after five minutes of waving to random strangers. I get a glimpse of the other tributes, I remember seeing them when I saw the full Reaping during the train ride. I see the pair of twins from District 7, who look about thirteen, the District 3 male, the female from 11 and all of the other tributes.

* * *

I am lead to another room, where I will be waiting for my prep team and stylist. I was put into a new outfit as well, which is just a blue robe. I wait on the bed that is placed in the center of the room. I wait there for ten more minutes before the first member of the prep team comes in. She has a ridiculous amount of makeup her face and has fake eye lashes that are at least a foot long. Besides the weird Capitol look the lady has a blue dress on.

"Hello dearie," she says as she extends her hand. "My name is Jacqueline and I'm one of the members of your prep team." She smiles at me, I try to smile back.

"I'm-"

"Yes dearie I know who you are, Belinda."

"Yes that's right, Jacqueline. And what exactly are you going to be doing?" Jacqueline takes something out of a cabinet, they look like pieces of paper.

"I need you to lie down on your bed and brace yourself dearie, this is going to hurt." It can't hurt that bad, I tell myself as I place my back on the bed. Jacqueline lifts my dress up a little to look at my legs, which made me feel slightly uncomfortable. She then takes one of the pieces of paper and places them on my legs. They can't hurt that bad, I tell myself again. She quickly lifts up the paper. I was wrong, I was very wrong, it hurt terribly. Jacqueline continues to put the pieces of paper all over my legs. I thought she would stop there, no she started to lift up my robe higher to places that also had hair. Who does this woman think she is plucking me like a chicken?

"Do you have to do this?" I say when she told me to remove my robe.

"Yes it's the rules."

"Fine." I sigh and roll my eyes. I do what she says, I feel extremely uncomfortable.

"There I'm done dearie." Jacqueline says after an hour of ripping every single strand of hair, except for my eyebrows and scalp, bet she would have done that too if she could. "Put your robe back on."

"Don't have to tell me twice."

* * *

Jacqueline leaves me in the room and not even a minute after she leaves a man comes in. He is really tall and buff, which I didn't except. I thought that people in the Capitol wouldn't care about how buff they are, they would rather dazzle their face or get whiskers. His hair is completely dyed blue, so are his eyebrows.

"Hello my name is Leto. Get off of the bed and sit on this chair."

"Okay." I walk towards the chair and sit on it. The chair is facing it's back towards a sink.

"I'm just going to wash your hair and then you will take a shower." Could've been worse, I tell myself. Leto takes some soap and puts it on my hair, knowing the Capitol it must be made to wash your hair. I read the word on the bottle it says shampoo, that's an odd name. Leto puts the shampoo on his hands and drills his fingers into my skull.

"Hey! Watch it! Try to be a little more sensitive on the scalp, I already felt like I've been plucked, don't make it any worse."

"You lived in District 10, you've probably and most likely never washed your hair properly. By the way you looked at the shampoo bottle I'm guessing you haven't. You have lots of dandruff and could possibly have lice. I will jab my fingers to your brain if it means that your head is clean."

"If you drill your fingers into my brain then I'll die. Don't mind if you do that anyway, beats fighting in the Games."

"Don't worry I won't do that, if I do then what's the point in watching the Games if I can't even see my tribute compete. Try to make the Games interesting this year, last year it was boring."

Leto continues to jab his fingers into my skull. I tell him to be more gentle but he complains about my whining and tells me that my head is disgusting.

"Okay here's your soap, the shower is to the right. I'll come in ten minutes." Leto hands me the soap and I walk to the shower. The pathway to the shower is beautiful, the walls are an ocean blue and the floors have a transparent look. The shower is a decent size, it's big enough for me too fit in, which is good. The soap that Leto gave me smells like flowers. It doesn't smell as good as I would have wanted it to, but it smells better than the soap I used to use at home. I hear a knock on the door that means that the ten minutes is up. Leto opens the door.

"What are you doing?" I say as I attempt close the door. Leto has a sponge in his hand.

"Oh," he chuckles. "You didn't except that I was going to let you wash yourself, you can't even wash your hair properly."

* * *

After Leto finished scrubbing me down, I am covered in a moisturizer. It smells terrible and combined with the fragrance of the body soap, the smell gets even worse.

"Okay, I'm finally done here. You're clean, let's just hope that it's enough for Cleo." Leto leaves the room and I am left standing up. I wait for five minutes, then for ten until another woman barges into the room. She must be Cleo. She has ginger hair that is put into a bun, over her body there are drawings, which I am assuming are tattoos. Her nails are very long, they look about six inches long. She is holding many small bottles of nail polish and other nail tools. She runs across the room and to the small table that was in the corner. Since she is wearing heals it looks foolish. She sits down on the chair and points any empty chair. I sit on the chair.

"As you can I'm already late, and I'll be painting your nails. We don't have any more time to waste. My name is Cleo. Okay let me get a look at those nails of yours!"

"Okay." I put my hands into hers and she inspects my nails.

"These are by far the ugliest nails I have ever seen in my life."

"Why thank you, if you look a little closer you can see some pig blood." I start to laugh. Cleo takes her nail file and hits my hand.

"This is not the time to be laughing. I need to have these nails beautiful by the time the interviews come, that's going to be difficult. Unless I place acrylic nails... No I shouldn't do that, I should let you have your natural nails but with some color or else they would be hideous to look at."

"I don't know if I should be happy that you are being honest with me or angry." I say.

"You should be happy. If I told you that they looked amazing, you would know that I was bluffing. Have you seen your nails?"

"I don't care about my nails, they are not important to me."

"Well for the next couple of days until the interviews, they will need to be."

"I'll try to keep them nice but I'm not promising anything, I may just bite them to annoy you."

"Oh really? I'll just put on this polish so every time you put your nails into your mouth, they will taste terrible."

"Great."

"Okay time to file and fix these things." Cleo takes her file and flies my nails down. I have to admit it, they are ugly. My nails are uneven, weak and still have dirt on them from the farm. Once Cleo finishes filing my nails, she puts this treatment on them and tells me they will help my nails get stronger.

"Done?" I ask.

"Yes, your nails will need some time to dry and you need to take off your robe."

"No." I quickly say.

"Excuse me?"

"I said no, do I need to shout? It's weird that I have to take off my robe again."

"You have to."

"Make me."

"I will." Cleo walks to me and tries to take off the robe form my body. I pull the robe back up. Cleo scratches me with her nails, which distracts me at once. She quickly removes the robe from my body.

"Give it back!"

"No and I'm taking this with me." Cleo then leaves me in the room with nothing.

* * *

The worst part about this is that my stylist is a male. The female tribute gets a male stylist and the male tribute gets a female stylist. The door knob starts to move. Oh God, I tell myself. The door then opens and the stylist walks to me.

"Hello Belinda I'm your stylist, Merlin. Now let's see what I've got to deal with this year." Merlin starts to walk around my body. I start to feel highly uncomfortable. I try to cover my body but Merlin puts my hand back down, as if saying no, no, I am going to see you. Out of all the events that has happened to me so far, this is my least favorite.

"So you are just going to walk around me like I'm some type of masterpiece?" I ask.

"No I have to examine you. Not bad, your prep team did a good job with fixing you."

"Thank you?"

"You should be saying thank you, prep teams put in a lot of work into fixing you guys." Merlin counties to walk around me, pointing out some flaws, things that need more work -like my nails- and things that are already good -for him it's my posture-.

"Anyway, enough chitchat it's time to talk about your costume for the parade. What is your opinion on being dressed as an animal?"

* * *

 ** _(A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'll try to make the costume for the Tribute Parade not as weird as it already sounds.)_**


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